An undeveloped property at the northeast corner of the Main Street interstate interchange could soon be developed if the Greenwood City Council approves a $2 million tax abatement request.
Thompson Thrift, a Terre Haute-based real estate and development company, plans to construct two speculative buildings of less than 150,000 square feet on about 15.5 acres of land at the northeast corner of the Interstate 65 interchange at Main Street. This land is currently the site of a home and farmland. The buildings are designed to attract advancing manufacturing, light assembly, life sciences and tech-focused companies, according to city documents.
This is not the first time this parcel has come before a city board or commission. Recent past projects have involved putting a truck stop or gas station on the land, but these projects met resistance from city officials, along with the board and even council members. They ultimately did not come to fruition.
To facilitate the potential development of the land for the latest proposal, Thompson Thrift is asking the Greenwood City Council to approve a 10-year, slightly more than $2 million tax break. One of the planned buildings is 111,300 square feet, and the other is 135,500 square feet, city documents show.
The developer plans a total $22.5 million real estate investment for the project, and the taxes and savings would be passed on to the future tenants once they acquire the spaces, said Alexis Sowder, director of KSM Location Advisors, which is representing Thompson Thrift. Sowder and Andrew Imel, vice president of industrial development for Thompson Thrift, came before the city council Monday night to introduce the request.
While the future tenants would receive a slightly more than $2 million tax break, they would still pay slightly more than $2 million in taxes, Sowder said.
Sowder also discussed the demand for speculative spaces in Johnson County, which is rebounding. Spaces of less than 150,000 square feet do see some declining absorption, or the rate at which properties are sold or leased in a market are decreasing. But “at the end of the day, it is a very tight market,” she said.
“You’ve got a very low latency rate, and you don’t have construction in the pipeline,” Sowder said. “The overall takeaway: there’s just a lack of available space for this size of product.”
These types of buildings will reduce risk for potential tenants. They will be able to get a site that is ready to go and will be able to quickly get products to markets, she said.
Additionally, the tenants would likely be companies that typically employ higher-skilled and higher-compensated workforces, documents show.
Council President Mike Campbell asked Sowder and Imel about Thompson Thrift’s past work with speculative buildings and what companies the buildings would be marketed toward. Imel said the developer is currently doing a similar project in a tech corridor in Mesa, Arizona, which attracted a lot of manufacturing and assembly uses.
Thompson Thrift’s development strategy would be to hire real estate brokers to get tenants, Imel said. While Imel couldn’t say exactly what would be in the buildings in Greenwood, he did say the site’s proximity to the interstate opens up the opportunity for light manufacturing or a showroom, as examples.
These buildings would also not be typical big box distribution centers with a lot of heavy trailer storage and semi-trailers. They can’t accommodate something of that size at this site, he said.
Council Vice President Linda Gibson asked if truck traffic from the site would go onto Main Street, referencing past concerns about projects proposed for the land that would empty traffic onto the busy roadway. Imel said that access would be through Chaney Avenue, adding that city staff had expressly said they wouldn’t support any project that added traffic to Main Street.
The city council will hold two more readings next month on the request, with the second reading being the final action.